Oak Park Heights, Minnesota Correctional Facility

Overview

The new sentencing system specified the number of months to be served for specific offenses and designated those crimes that would result in confinement in state prison and those that could be dealt with by alternatives to incarceration. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, only offenders convicted of crimes against persons (e.g., murder, assault, armed robbery, rape, child molestation) and drug trafficking, as well as those who had failed in the various alternatives to imprisonment, would be sent to state prison. Once in prison, they must serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on supervised release. The second change, the Community Corrections Act, provided state funds to enable Minnesota counties to keep nonviolent offenders in their jails, under probation supervision, or placed in community-based facilities and programs. The third new direction in penal policy was the decision to build a high-security prison to replace the State Penitentiary at Stillwater built in 1914. This decision was influenced by a series of inmate homicides (3 in 1975) and suicides (11 between 1971 and 1974), an increase in assaults on inmates and on staff, and allegations of drug trafficking that led to a legislative investigation.

In 1976, the Joint House-Senate Committee on Minnesota State Prison issued a detailed report that found that the state's only penitentiary for adult males was seriously mismanaged, that staff and inmates feared for their safety, and that dangerous prisoners were not effectively separated from the general inmate population. The investigation concluded that controlling prisoners in giant cell halls that were four tiers high, each containing 512 cells, made visual surveillance of inmate activity “impossible.”

A new Commissioner of Corrections, Kenneth F. Schoen, replaced the warden at Stillwater with the Department of Corrections' Inspector of Jails, Frank W. Wood. With a promise of no interference from departmental headquarters, Wood introduced [Page 646]a proactive strategy to restore order in the prison. He greatly restricted and controlled all inmate movement, initiated random lockdowns and shakedowns of inmate cells, work and recreation areas, built walls to divide the large cell blocks into more manageable spaces, and replaced most of the administrative staff. Wood's management philosophy was summed up in words that have become widely quoted in penology: “If you gave me the choice between this place [the new prison] with a dishonest, incompetent staff and a tent with honest, competent staff, I'd take the tent” (King, 1991).

Photo 1

Oak Park Heights, administrative building in the foreground

While Wood was bringing Stillwater Prison under control, planning moved ahead for the construction of the new high-security prison at Oak Park Heights (OPH). The new institution was to employ a nontraditional design to house a relatively small population of violent and predatory prisoners. Wood was appointed warden and began outlining security and staffing needs, along with inmate programs and services. With Wood's management strategy in place, Oak Park Heights began receiving prisoners in March 1982.

Design

Oak Park Heights is an earth-sheltered maximum-security prison built into a hillside overlooking the St. Croix River Valley (Photos 1–3). From a nearby road and residential area, all that is visible of the facility is a one-story brick administration building. Because it lies 30 feet or more under the ground, OPH has been able to achieve significant economies in heating and cooling costs. Double parallel fences with razor ribbon between them and equipped with electronic motion detection devices provide perimeter security.

...